


Tune Pehli Nazar Jab Nazar Se Milaayi, Mazaa Aagaya

by AvaCelt



Series: 2020 Bollywood Prompt Fills [6]
Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Comedy, F/M, Feelings Realization, Idiots in Love, Inspired by Bollywood, Love Confessions, M/M, One Big Happy Family, Physical Disability, Post Spade Kingdom Arc, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Tasteful lemons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:29:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27415009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaCelt/pseuds/AvaCelt
Summary: It takes a decade and a half, some kidnappings, and several broken curses for Yami to realize that he might just have feelings for a certain bugman with knives for arms. [Jack/Yami romance epic, post-Spade Kingdom Arc]
Relationships: Asta/Liebe (Black Clover), Henry Legolant/Charmy Pappitson, Jack the Ripper/Yami Sukehiro, Nacht/Gimodelo, Vanessa Enoteca/Finral Roulacase
Series: 2020 Bollywood Prompt Fills [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969198
Comments: 10
Kudos: 15
Collections: IAmStoryteller's Best of Black Clover Fic Rec





	Tune Pehli Nazar Jab Nazar Se Milaayi, Mazaa Aagaya

**Author's Note:**

> _Mere Rashke Qamar_ providing the title tonight, roughly translating into "when our eyes first met, I had the greatest feeling."

Yami rolls his eyes for the umpteenth time when Finral tells him to take it easy. He's taking a sip of his water when the new vice-captain of the Black Bulls finally disappears into his portal with four of the other squad members.

And just like that, it's just Yami, because Henry's out frolicking in the garden with Charmy. Crisis allowed for that, of course. With kidnappings came a fresh burst of motivation, and not only did his sometimes-good-for-some-things squad rescue himself and William Vangeance, but they also managed to break Henry's curse, along with the Heart Queen's.

So now Charmy and Henry are very loudly kissing and giggling in the garden, while Yami drinks his water and smokes his cigarette in eerie silence.

He's only been back a week, but _everything's_ changed.

The shrimp is married to his demon now, matching bracelets and a black arm marking him the demon's beloved, while Henry floats around different members of the squad like a second skin when he's not canoodling with the cook out in her garden. Noelle's already back in Heart on a peacekeeping mission, determined to foster relations between the growing Elven community and the residents of Clover, while Zora, Magna, and Luck work the borders, helping to rebuild the small towns and villages that were destroyed during the beginning skirmishes.

The others are busy as well, and Vanessa is almost never home until late in the evening, because she'd stepped up when it mattered the most. He'll never admit it, but he's proud of her. When his world was ending, she'd stepped into the light.

And that's why he's sipping his water and idly smoking his cigarette, because he's retired now. Twenty-nine years old, and already on his state-sponsored pension - Yami hopes his injuries will improve over the next couple of years so he can take up traveling again. He doesn't need to worry about his squad anymore because they take orders from a witch and a taxi now. What _he_ needs to do is work out the next chapter of his life before he's able to take up free-flying again. He can't wander from town to town with busted knees and weak hips just yet, but with the rigorous physical therapy, regular check-ups, and threats of castration from Charmy should he ever skip his medication, Yami knows that he'll be back to full health in two or three years.

If Owen says he can do it, then he'll do it. Vangeance is doing is too, so Yami has full faith in himself, the good doctor, and the cabinet full of medication keeping the pain to a minimum.

He just needs to figure out what to do in the meantime.

“Maybe I should play some suckers,” he says out loud, before realizing that the portal mage has already left, and that Charmy will beat him with a wooden spoon before escorting him to a gambling hall. He pouts, because that means there's only one other option on this dreary afternoon.

“I'll bother the weirdo,” he decides.

And by weirdo, he means Jack the Ripper.

Except when Charmy drops him off, Jack the Ripper is long gone.

* * *

“What the hell is he doing on vacation?” Yami barks, his cigarette hanging stiff and hot from one corner of his mouth.

Sekke sputters helplessly until En Ringard finally appears and gestures the young man to take over his task. En Ringard is the mushroom weirdo, a little too nice for Yami's liking, but acceptable in this case.

“Where the hell is the knifefucker?” Yami barks again, because _clearly_ , the junior mage is lying. Yami doesn't remember the last time Jack took a vacation, so clearly the young man's playing games with him.

“Captain Jack is on vacation,” En Ringard hums pleasantly.

“Come again?”

“A vacation, Captain Yami, Captain Jack has decided to take one.”

“How does he know what a vacation is?”

“... is that a trick question?”

“Where is he?”

“On vacation.”

Yami grabs for his sword, but there's no scabbard, but there's Yami's cane, and he feels like stomping it like a petulant child because mushroom man is telling him _Jack the Ripper_ is on vacation.

Yami remembers the breathing exercises Owen taught him, the ones where he counts backwards in his head while taking leveled breaths. Once he's gotten his anger under control, he tries again. “Where did the knifefucker go?”

En Ringard beams at him like the shrimp often does, and Yami is slightly afraid. “He went home to his sister.”

“His sister,” Yami points out, and Yami vaguely remembers there being a 'Jill' somewhere in his memories, but he's never met the woman, so he's never put a face to a name.

“His sister,” En Ringard repeats.

“Hmph.”

It ends as quickly as it starts. Yami hobbles back to Charmy and Henry, who are holding hands and looking lovey-dovey. He stomps his cane twice, clears his throat, and then glares at them while they chuckle sheepishly, head in the clouds, hands entwined.

“He's not here,” he grumbles, getting ready to get back on the winged detachable cube Henry drives with his magic.

“Captain Jack's not in, la?”

He takes a long drag of his cigarette and exhales tiredly. “No.”

And that's the end of that.

* * *

At least, he wishes that's the end of that.

“Why the fuck is he on vacation?” Yami asks out loud for the seventh time while Grey simply whimpers in her seat next to him. “He never went before, so why the hell is he taking one now?” Gordon mumbles two seats away, but Yami doesn't understand him, so he just takes another drag of his cigarette.

“Maybe Captain Jack needed to find new opponents!” Luck chimes in from across the table. He's building towers with the Marie figures he's swiped from Gauche's room so that the mirror mage will pick a fight with him.

“We just survived an invasion, so perhaps he left to rest,” Gordon manages to say loud enough for Yami to finally catch on.

“Rest, huh...” Yami can't help but glare at his squad members, who at this point are used to his specific breed of tantrums.

“Muh-muh-muh-maybe he needed a change of scenery!” Grey manages to squeak out while hiding her eyes.

“Hmph,” Yami grunts, and takes another drag of his cigarette.

* * *

It's after dinner when Yami finds Liebe and Gimodelo sitting on the roof above Magna's room, knocking back bottles of hard liquor while bitching about their respective spouses. That's when he realizes that he needs to get the fuck out too.

“I'm taking a vacation,” he yells loud enough for everyone and their mother to hear. Even Charmy and Henry who are having relations in Henry's room poke their heads out of Henry's window to blink up at their crazed former captain.

“I'm taking a vacation,” he repeats, quieter this time.

“He's retired, does it even _count_ as a vacation?” Gauche mumbles to himself before pulling his curtains closed and going back to bed.

* * *

“Yami-san, are you sure you don't want to send a letter in advance?” Finral asks sheepishly.

“No.”

“Ah... I see......”

“How's he supposed to know you're coming?” Nero asks placidly from her place on the couch. She's knitting a new sweater for her beau who lives in the town a few miles outside of the forest.

“He didn't tell me he was leaving, so why the hell should I tell him I'm coming?”

Nero gives him a look, followed by Charmy, followed by Henry, followed by Finral who is absolutely sleeping with Vanessa since he'd apparently broken off his engagement with Finnese Calmreich shortly after Yami had been kidnapped.

“Did he dump you?” Gimodelo asks him in his chibi form that's barely the size of Yami's hand.

“What!?” He barks, eyes glinting with malice as he goes for his sword, comes up empty, and instead raises his cane.

“He definitely dumped him,” Liebe grunts from his perch on one of the ceiling beams, and before Yami can throw his cane at him, the demon cackles and skitters off.

* * *

“ _Yami!?”_

“ _With Captain Jack!?”_

Safe to say, Vanessa and Finral don't get much canoodling done that night.

* * *

Finral drops him off just outside the town's main entrance, which is really just a rickety road, a bridge over a freshwater lake, and then some more road before the first houses start to appear. Yami will make the mile-long trek with his cane, his new cape, and his knapsack, because his physical therapy sessions exist for a _reason_ , and Charmy didn't pack all of his medications into neatly labeled packets just for him to throw in the towel. He's not here to fuck with Jack, he just wants to know when the hell the weird bastard started taking vacations. It's an honest and worthy inquiry, because they've been friends for almost fifteen years, and Yami has never seen the man take a day off, not even when injured.

So _clearly_ something is wrong, and Yami's going to get to the bottom of it. He may be retired, but he's not dead. A man's reputation is at stake here. Sure, it's Jack's reputation, but Yami has a stake in it too! Friendship is forever, after all.

* * *

He's never met Jill before. He's heard her name here and there, but never for more than a handful of times.

The hometown part is worse, because Jack's only mentioned its name _once_ in the past decade and a half, so Yami's surprised he even remembers it.

But he does – and now he's here.

* * *

He doesn't go straight to Jack's house, of course. He knows where it is because Finral is endearing like that, and he knows the basics about Jill and what she does because Zora is equally endearing, even though both of them irritate him to no end.

Instead, he makes his way to the town's only inn. It's close to the main road, so Yami only has to huff and puff for a little while longer until he's in his room.

He props his legs up on the bed first. Then he lays back against the headboard before dry-swallowing Charmy's pills. He lights his cigarette shortly afterwards, and smokes quietly as the tell-tale magic of the healing pills start to warm his throbbing flesh and joints, finally dulling the burning pain.

There's a fleeting look in his gray eyes, but it's not a look he likes to share with others. The glint of the glowing end of the cigarette shines in the emptiness of the small room, and Yami wonders why he's come all this way when, quite frankly, it's none of his business.

“Why the hell did you come back?” He asks the man who isn't here. “Why didn't you tell me?”

Yami Sukehiro is nothing, if not nosy, so he's about to make it _all_ his business.

* * *

“I've been cavorting with homebodies too much,” he deadpans when he realizes that he needs food _right this instant_. Before he'd established the Black Bulls, he could pass with one or two meals, and small ones at that. Sometimes, he'd simply go hungry because he was horrible with fishing, and even worse with hunting since he couldn't bring himself to kill every one of his prey. Before he became Julius' ward, food was even more scarce, so the Yami of the old was used to scrimping by.

But the Yami of the Black Bulls gets three square meals a day, snacks in between, and lots of alcohol. It helps when one of the strongest Knights in the squad is also the squad's chef.

His stomach growls.

Ten minutes later, he, his cane, and his wallet are out the door and foraging for lunch.

And because he has shit luck, he stumbles upon his target before he even has a chance to come up with a game plan.

* * *

Jack's dressed in brown trousers, a white button-down that's left untucked, and a sleeveless vest on top of that. His shoes are plain brown loafers, probably from the local shoemaker, and he looks much the same.

Jill looks just like her brother, freakishly tall, and with the same pointy nose. Unlike Jack's short hair, her wavy black locks cascade over her shoulders and down her ample bosom. She's two shades darker than Jack, and her eyes are a deeper gold, but from behind, they might as well be twins.

When Yami first walks into the pub, he's hoping to get a corner table so he can think while he eats, but the second he enters, he finds Jack and Jill talking about Jill's new kitchen cabinet. He can't even turn around and leave. He can't pretend he never saw them because Yami's an idiot.

He's an idiot, and he can't stop staring at Jack talking casually about a kitchen cabinet while he's holding himself up with a cane, high as hell on healing pills.

And hungry – his stomach growls, and Jack's gaze sharply flickers over to him, and suddenly he's caught.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Jack says with surprise written all over his face.

Jill turns to look at him, and her golden eyes pierce him completely. His soul is laid bare, his agony, his everything. She only looks him directly in the eye for a few seconds before returning her gaze to her brother, but Yami already feels numb, as if he just locked gazes with a beast.

“Friend of yours?”

“Kekeke, an idiot!” Jack cackles, and suddenly it's OK because _Jack_ is here, and he can deal with the sisterbeast if Jack's around. Yami can't help but smile.

“Who the fuck are you calling an idiot, knifefucker?” He grunts with a smirk, hobbling up to the pair. “Fancy meeting you here.”

Jack cackles again before turning to his sister. “Coworker.”

Jill sees something Yami doesn't and gives a small smile. “I'll see you at home then?”

“Nah, let's grab the grub and go.”

A frog crawls up Yami's throat, and he stands there, stooped over his cane, mouth agape as Jack rejects his presence.

Yami closes his mouth before Jack can turn around. Once he does, Yami notes that there's something missing in his eyes, something Yami can't quite his finger on. “Guess yer just hangin out, huh? Being retired and all.”

Yami swallows the frog in his throat and musters a grim smile. “I guess.”

“Jack! Jill!” The barstaff yell from the counter. Jill shuffles over to grab the tiffin boxes while Jack and Yami stare intently at each other in an unspoken standoff.

“Guess I'll be seeing ya around then,” Jack says finally, a dry smile on his lips, one that's saying something entirely different, one that Yami will never admit he doesn't understand.

“I guess,” Yami finds himself repeating again.

And just like that, they're gone, out the door with their tiffin boxes, brother and sister.

It's not until Yami's seated at his rickety corner table that he realizes something isn't just amiss, it's _wrong._

* * *

Yami eats his food and drinks his beer in earnest as he goes over the facts in his head.

Jack is twenty-nine, like him, and was born and raised in this little lakeside town. He grew up poor, one of two children, both siblings sharing just one parent, an old drunkard that passed when Jack and Jill were barely double digits. Somewhere along the way, Jack left this town to go work in the Capital, and sometime after his arrival, he was accepted into the Magic Knights. There's no Jill in Jack's story after Jack joins the Magic Knights, and for the last fifteen years that Yami has known the man, he's only spoken about her a handful of times, and usually only in passing.

He's halfway through his beefsteak sandwich when he realizes he doesn't know jackshit about the man he considers his weirdo, knifefucking friend.

The thought irritates him. He grunts, finishes swallowing the meat and bread in his mouth, and then downs the rest of his beer before raising his finger for a refill. While the barstaff brings over a fresh mug, he goes over Zora's notes, scraps of information the trapmaster picked up from the tax records at the Capital's record hall.

Jill is twenty-seven, and owns a little laundry business. She washes clothes, sheets, and other fabric goods for the town's general populace. Her magic is conjuring many hands from the mana in her fingertips, hands that can be made of any material she chooses, so for the sake of her business, her many hands are usually made up of soapy water so that she can wash ten times as many clothes, as the magic hands follow the movements of her actual hands.

It's the nifty kind of magic that depends entirely on the creativity of its user. Jill is clever, something both he and Jack are not, so it's no surprise that she's fine on her own in this bumfuck little town while Jack works in the Capital.

And yet, Yami knows there's something else, something more. Jack barely talks about her, and now he's back?

“He did survive an invasion,” comes a pleasant voice from behind him. Yami turns around to see Nacht smiling with that creepy little fake smile of his, Gimodelo cackling somewhere inside the folds of his cape.

“Why the hell are _you_ here?”

Nacht doesn't bother asking to sit down, just pulls a chair opposite him, and plops down like they're on a lunch date.

“Pappitson said to keep an eye on you.”

“You take orders from _Charmy?”_ Yami balks, flabbergasted.

“He takes orders from me, if he wants to get laid,” cackles the demon hiding inside Nacht's cape. Nacht twitches, his fake smile cracking on his face, while Yami looks at them both with mild disgust.

They don't speak for the rest of the dinner, Nacht preoccupied with the book he's brought with him, and Yami lost in his thoughts with a sandwich and some beers.

* * *

Yami knows he's an asshole. He's never shied away from being a pest because nothing brings him more joy than seeing people squirm. Half the time he's jesting, but the other half, he's serious, and this time – this time Yami doesn't know if he's about to be an asshole for a joke's sake, or because he's genuinely pissed.

Scratch that – he's _definitely_ pissed.

Its been four hours since they last saw each other at the pub, so Jack's stomach will probably be begging for dinner soon, and Yami wants to be there when the bastard is hungry.

Jack is fixing a loose board on the porch of a small house. It's Jill's, by the looks of it. Her clothes are drying in the backyard. Yami spies dresses, trousers, and plain blouses. It's her house, and her brother is fixing a sinking board on her porch, like all good brothers.

Jack's working on the screws holding down the board while Yami hobbles up to the porch steps in his new cape. Grey sewed it for him, told him that she'd spent many years mending clothes and that she wanted to make something new instead of fixing old things, and she wanted to give her first creation to her captain.

Yami is thankful to the shy woman. It's a warm cape, and it helps protect him from the anxiety that bubbles in his chest every time he leaves the mansion with his new best friend, his trusty cane.

Jack's hair is pulled into a loose ponytail. Yami can see the outlines of his throat and ear. Jack's too uncouth and ugly to be anything other than a Magic Knight or day laborer. They've discussed this at length during their gambling hall binges, of course. Yami is equally abrasive, and maybe just a smidgen prettier, but he knows he's pretty ugly himself. His face is harsh and weathered from years of living on the street, and he knows he overcompensates with the bulging muscles and amazing strength, because really, _what_ does he have if he doesn't have his ungodly strength, bull-like face, and caustic attitude?

Not a goddamn thing – and Jack understands.

“Bored already?” Jack says casually, as if they've been talking for hours, as if Yami hasn't just interrupted his work.

Yami fishes out a cigarette from his cape pocket, and lights the cancer stick with an old lighter. He blows a few puffs of smoke before answering. “Maybe.”

Jack is already pulling out his loose board while Yami takes another drag of his cigarette.

“There's a casino at the nearest city,” Jack notes, eyes on the the fresh board he's sizing up to insert into the empty space where the loose board used to be. “Just follow the road to the lake, and then take a left along the water. If you fly, you'll be there in a couple of hours, but if you're planning on walking, it's a day's walk on foot. Forest's got some boars you could roast kekeke.”

“Why don't you come with me?” Yami says before he can stop himself. It comes naturally, like two peas in a pod, Jack and Yami going to a casino together to get drunk off their asses and lose their week's wages.

Jack finally turns to look at him. There's a smile playing on his lips, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes, and Yami doesn't know why that suddenly stings.

“Nah,” Jack says again, like it's nothing. “Jill will be home soon.”

“Why are you here, weirdo?” Yami snaps, because Yami is a nosy bastard from Hell, and he's not taking empty one-liners for an answer.

Jack is taken aback. “Huh?”

Yami takes a harsh drag of his cigarette, but the smoke doesn't even phase him. Any normal man would have choked on a drag that sharp, but Yami's a pro – and he's pissed.

“You haven't visited her in over a decade, but you're here _now?_ What are you hiding? I know you're hiding something, bastard. What is it!?”

Yami bellows out the rest of the words, _demands_ an answer, because he's annoyed, in pain, and wants answers.

Jack just blinks, gaze drifting to Yami's hand clasped over his cane. Yami's eyes go down to his bad leg, the one that's _screaming_ at him, and to his horror, he realizes that his hand with the cane is shaking, and that if he doesn't find a place to sit down soon, he's going to topple over like a useless bag of bricks.

Jack has one arm over his shoulder before Yami can even register his movements. Before he knows its, he's settled on the top porch step, back against the railing, his bad leg stretched out on the lip of the porch, his cigarette hanging idly in his mouth while Jack hammers away the nails holding down the new wooden board.

Yami gazes at the dying afternoon sunlight, wondering why he's here.

“Whatever it is you’re thinking about, let it go.”

Yami turns to the man speaking, the one hammering down nails instead of cutting and slashing at trees and Magic Knights. The words roll off Jack's tongue like water.

“Did you hear what I just said?” Jack says bluntly after hammering in the last nail. “Ke! Let it go, and go home. Read a book.”

Yami grunts, takes a drag of his cigarette, and glares at the man who won't look him in the eyes. “Tell me what you're doing here then.”

Jack finally looks at him again, but it's with a withering gaze, one that's half exhausted, half annoyed. “I'm on vacation, so I came to see my sister,” he enunciates slowly, as if talking to a child.

“But you haven't been back here in years,” Yami points out like he's Nozel Bitchboy Silva. “A vacation is taking your sister somewhere nice, not hanging out with her in yer old hicktown.”

Jack just continues giving him a withering gaze, and Yami feels the anger building in his chest again.

“Why do you care?” Jack asks abruptly, his smile gone, eyes hesitant.... and afraid?

“Because we're _friends,_ asshole!” Yami barks. He hates saying it out loud, because it's tacky, doesn't leave a good taste in his mouth.

Something shifts in Jack's eyes, but again, Yami doesn't understand _what_ that something is, and it riles him up to no end. Jack seems to catch onto his agitation and averts his gaze. He's smiling again, but it's half-hearted, and Yami hates it.

“I came to talk to her about some things,” Jack begins carefully, and Yami almost bites down on his cigarette because Jack's _never_ been the careful type.

Except that's a lie, because Jack had carefully undone his chains and bandaged up his wounds with strips of his Green Mantis cape before carefully carrying him to his Black Bulls, Jack the Ripper, the craziest, dumbest captain in the Magic Knights.

Suddenly, Yami realizes why he's here.

“Are you retiring?” Yami blurts out.

Jack turns back to him, blinks twice, and narrows his eyes. “Huh?”

He's flexing his hands and fingers, willing his breaths to stay even, _stay calm_ , because he's not here to cause drama and hurl accusations, he's just anxious, he's fucking _worried._

“Are you quitting the Magic Knights?” Yami growls. “Is it because of the invasion? Did something happen? Shit.... Did Owen not put you in therapy? I'm in therapy right now; he won't let me out of it, but he makes me do it after the check-ups, so I don't have to make double trips. Bad for the leg... Is that why you're here? Because you want to leave?”

Jack stares are him like he's an alien. If Yami wasn't high on three different healing pills, anxious as hell, and _fuming_ , then he'd agree with the bastard, but he's not going to. He's too aggravated for his own good.

“... You got all of that from two conversations?” Jack deadpans, not even bothering to hide his distate.

“Yes,” Yami affirms, because he's about as dumb as Jack, but just hides it better.

“... ke! You're a fucking idiot.”

“What about it?” Yami threatens, eyes glinting with malice while Jack starts to laugh.

And it's an _honest_ laugh, the one where his eyes crinkle at the corners, where his neck stretches out like a giraffe's, and he looks like he's having the best laugh of his life.

It's a beautiful laugh.

Yami swallows the frog in his throat.

“Kekeke! Damn, you're fucking stupid,” Jack finishes, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. He finally settles into a soft smile, one that's kind, and just a little pained. “Family matters,” Jack assures him. “Can't keep avoiding things forever, y'know? You were right about one thing... the invasion put things into perspective, so I came back to talk things out.”

“About what?” Yami pries, because he's a nosy bastard.

“Just some things,” Jack evades politely, and it's a _horrible_ look on the freakishly tall man. “She's my sister, y'know. I love her.”

Yami doesn't have any brothers or sisters, so he doesn't know. He doesn't know how it feels to love someone and never see them, then come home one day to pretend like nothing ever went wrong.

And Yami can accept that – for now.

“Hmph,” he grunts. “Coulda just told me that before you up and disappeared.”

“Kekeke.... why? Ya _worried,_ Sukehiro?” Jack teases.

“Who the hell's worried?” Yami barks, and takes another drag of his cigarette.

Jack doesn't say anything, just stares at him for another minute before moving his gaze to the footpath leading up to the house. When Yami turns to look, he sees Jill walking up with with a handful of groceries, so he knows dinner is happening inside the house tonight, made by brother and sister.

“Staying for dinner, Mr. Yami?” Jill asks with ease. Her gaze is cooler now, but Yami still feels some unease, as if she's peeling him apart with her eyes alone, layer by layer.

He finishes his cigarette, and crushes the butt in his fist. “Nah,” he answers hastily. “Promised dinner to a friend.”

Nacht is barely his friend, and has probably already left the inn to forage for dinner with his demon husband – but Yami's not telling her that.

She nods in assent. Jack reaches out a hand, and Jill promptly hands over the groceries. The bags wack Yami in the knees as they exchange hands, and he grumbles, but the siblings just laugh. Jack reaches out the other hand next, and helps Jill hop over Yami's form. They're in the house under a minute, and Yami's alone on the porch, as if it's natural, as if he belongs.

He hears Jack laugh at something Jill says, and he wishes he'd just disappear.

* * *

He doesn't, of course. He bids them a proper goodbye by banging his cane against the door and announcing his departure. Jill yells goodbye from inside, but Jack's in the upstairs bathroom, so he's not there to bid him farewell.

He hobbles back to the inn, and goes straight to bed, because he's not hungry, and _won't_ be hungry, not tonight at least.

He's about to dry-swallow the night's round of healing pills when Gimodelo swipes the drugs, and Nacht threatens to slit his throat. He's about to throw his pillow at the stupid twink when Gimodelo throws him a fresh loaf of bread. Yami threatens to skin them both alive, but they just smile at him until he tearing out chunks and shoveling them into his mouth. Gimodelo skitters by with a cup of fruit next, and a plate of olives, and so Yami eats dinner, against his will, at the mercy of a twink and his demon husband moonlighting as a chibi menace.

He swallows the pills with a glass of water before retiring to bed, but of course, sleep doesn't come. It can't – not when Yami can't stop thinking.

* * *

“You know, you're not as dumb as you look,” Gimodelo says cheerfully. They're playing cards while Nacht is in a coma, because the asshole sleeps like the dead.

“Hmph,” he grunts, while placing another set of cards on the table.

“If you work on your social skills, then you can probably express your feelings within the next five years... but if you don't, you're gonna die of constipation!”

Yami looks at the the half-a-foot tall critter who's actually a nine-foot-tall wraith who holds Nacht in his arms like a porcelain doll when Nacht doesn't think people are watching.

“I'm never gonna die on the toilet,” Yami huffs.

“You will if you don't sort out what's in your heart,” Gimodelo states, putting down another card. “I win.”

Yami looks down at the cards, does the necessary caluclations, realizes he just lost his lunch money for tomorrow. He sighs and is about to fish out his coins, until Gimodelo cackles. Yami looks at the weird creature laughing and laughing, as if there's something wrong with his face.

“What?” He growls, because he's angry again, and it's late in the evening, and most decent people are asleep.

“Why are you here?”

“Don't worry about it.”

Gimodelo hums thoughtfully. “Tell you what – you can keep your money, but you have to leave in the morning.”

Yami scoffs, pain blooming fresh in his chest. “Joke's on you asshole, I was already gonna do that.”

“And you're not going to bother him again,” Gimodelo adds bluntly.

Yami blinks. “Huh?”

“You're not gonna bother him, your friend, the tongue man. You're gonna take your ass home, and you're gonna leave him alone, and when he comes back, you're not gonna ask any questions.”

Yami swallows the frog in his throat before answering. “Of course,” he mumbles hoarsely. “That's easy...”

Gimodelo hums contently again, and this time, Yami forces himself to go to sleep, because it's an early start tomorrow. He'll be going home.

He'll be going home to figure out why there's a frog in his throat, and why everything hurts.

* * *

“ _I'm Yami.”_

“ _Jack.”_

“ _Why do you have knives in your arms?”_

“ _Why does your face look like a dog's?”_

* * *

The first time they met, they fought.

And they've been best friends ever since.

* * *

“Are you going to brood forever?” Secre asks him one afternoon, days after he's back from stalking Jack and Jill.

The accusation catches Yami off guard, but he doesn't buckle. “Who says I'm brooding?”

“It's in your mana!” Luck points out giddily.

“You OK, boss?” Magna asks with a hint of concern.

Yami doesn't buckle, not even Secre gives him a pitying look that spells recognition – understanding.

* * *

The news comes to him two weeks later, three days after Jack is back, and one day before he, Jack, Mr. Stuckup Fire Lion, and Vangeance are supposed to meet for dinner, drinks, and loads of gambling at the best pool hall in the Capital. Charmy allows for this excursion because Stickuphisass will be supervising, along with Scarface.

But it's going to be fun – Yami's looking forward to it.

Until news arrives that Jack's getting married.

* * *

“An engagement?”

“To a _what?”_

“Did you know?”

“Hell no! But... I'm not surprised.”

“Explains a lot.”

“Especially the abnormalities.”

Yami sees red, and beats both of the Crimson Lion nobodies with his cane until Fuegoleon himself has to pull him away.

* * *

He can't break his eyes away from the mirage with the pale skin and hauntingly beautiful eyes. There's that frog again, stuck at the base of his throat, while Fuegoleon is speaking softly but firmly, urging him to calm down, urging him to remember that Jack is their friend, that this changes nothing, that discrimination is still widespread in the Kingdom, but they're here to set an _example,_ and the best example is to be as supportive of Jack as possible.

Yami doesn't understand why his heart is thundering in his chest. All he can see is the mirage – all he can see is Jack.

* * *

Jack comes to the pool hall next day with news of his engagement party. His sister's holding the event at a rented hall in Nean, because that's where his future fiance lives.

This future fiancé is a locksmith – a young man who works and lives in a two-story building at the heart of the city. Jill and the locksmith have been friends for a few years now, after having met during one of Jill's business trips. She's the one who's arranged the proposal, because Jill is clever like that, and keeps names and faces at the back of her mind, in case anyone ever needs her.

Jill arranged the proposal, but it's Jack who asked her to do it in the first place.

* * *

“So you asked her to find someone for you?” Fuegoleon asks politely while Yami downs his beer and Vangeance watches quietly.

“Yeah,” Jack sighs. “I thought about it before, but never really got around to it. Spade though... I don't wanna go down knowing I never lived the best life I could.”

Fuegoleon nods sagely because it's a valid concern, one that all Magic Knights of all inclinations experience.

“How is this man?” William asks curiously. “Have you met before?”

“Nope,” Jack says.

Yami almost swallows his cigarette. _“What?”_

“It's an arranged marriage,” he drawls. “The mystery is half the fun kekeke.” He takes another drink of his beer and smiles warmly. “I trust Jill. She won't steer me wrong.”

Yami seethes, because that means Jack steered _himself_ wrong, and the frog in his throat and burning in his chest want to know _for who?_

* * *

Yami takes another drag of his cigarette and ignores Fuegoleon.

“Yami – stop it.”

“No,” Yami counters. “Shut it – I can’t hear her if you're talking,” he snaps. Yami's crouched on the ground, hiding behind some bushes, _stalking_ Jill, who's shopping for a dress she can wear to the engagement party.

Fuegoleon is crouched beside him, because Yami's injured, and no one will let him wander off alone, because he's _loved_ , because people care about him.

But it hurts – his chest still hurts.

Fuegoleon's had enough. “You won't learn anything crouched behind some _bushes,”_ hisses the eldest Vermillion prince. “I'll go speak to her if you won't!”

“Speak to me about what?” Asks a soft voice, and both men scramble back and fall on their asses as a tall, golden-eyed women stares intently down at them.

There's a frog stuck in Yami's throat, but Fuegoleon is quick and efficient. “We have some questions for you, Madame. If you'd give us a moment of your time, we'd greatly appreciate it.”

“Of course, we can talk at the cafe down the road.”

She answers Fuegoleon, but she stares at Yami.

* * *

“My brother fell in love with a man who does not love him. He realized how... irrelevant his feelings were after he came home. I trust you both are well aware of the existential dread that oftentimes arrests the soldiers of the court. My brother had... a similar crisis. He chose to let go of his feelings for the man he cannot be with, and chose an arrangement instead. It's quite common, you'll know. Not as common between men, but still, it's a well-regarded practice in our realm. Easier to navigate the social classes. Since they're men, they won't be able to take in children or inherit each other's property, but that's why I'm here. I'll be managing the legal affairs and deeming myself their primary asset holder and legal adopter of their future children so that they'll be able to reap the full benefits of married life with me as their middleman. For my brother, I will accept nothing less.”

“Who is he?” Yami croaks, because he wants to know, he _needs_ to know.

This time she doesn't look at him, instead keeps her eyes trained on Fuegoleon's silent figure. “That's for Jack to say, and if he hasn't told you, then perhaps it's none of your business.”

The frog dies in his throat, and so does his heart.

* * *

“When a man loves a man, he loves him with all of his heart. When a _demon_ loves a man, he holds him like a cat,” Gimodelo says sagely as Nacht naps against his chest. Gimodelo in his true form is a hulking monster, but it's the monster Nacht loves.

Yami sits on the couch, staring into space. Everyone is asleep, except for him and Gimodelo, because they sleep the latest, and Gimodelo loves to hold Nacht when he's in his comas.

“When a man loves a man, he'll do anything for him, but when a _demon_ loves a man – they'll _kill_ for him.”

The words trigger a memory, something that's only a couple of weeks old, but written in his bones. It's a memory of the day the Magic Knights stormed the Spade Monarchs' castle to rescue Vangeance and himself. It's a memory of the captains pairing up to take on a different demon, a different monarch, a different soldier, except one.

It's a memory he remembers clearly, but one he barely puts any thought into, because why does it matter who fought whom? They'd all survived, they'd won, and they'd all come home. It doesn't matter who faced whom, who killed whom, who carried whom on their back.

Except it does – it all matters. Because only one man fought alone, and that man killed Zenon Zogratis with his bare hands, crushed the bones in his neck with a look of unbridled rage, and then that same man broke Yami's chains, wrapped his wounds, and then carried him on his back for miles until they reached the Black Bulls transportation, and finally went home.

And that man was Jack the Ripper.

* * *

Yami doesn't have Nacht's brains, or Asta's infectious positivity, but he _does_ have his instincts, and his instincts tell him that he's hit the nail right on the head, and that the only logical next step for coming to such a conclusion is to go straight to the source.

Yami's going to crash Jack the Ripper's engagement party.

* * *

Fuegoleon helps because he believes him. Gimodelo is in it for the drama, so Nacht just stays quiet in the background with his plastic smile. Vangeance is on board because Vangeance himself is battling his feelings for a certain runaway elf who may or may not be hiding in Heart.

The rest of the Black Bulls are here to mediate the impending bloodbath, but at least the shrimp's brimming with happy tears of encouragement and platitudes about how true love will surely persevere.

Liebe gives a wry smile, but it's an indulging smile, a smile that speaks of understanding.

So Yami goes forth.

* * *

Jill holds the blade to his throat before he can even step into the hall. Jack is already inside, cackling away with his squad members and other guests while drinking the good booze. The engagement itself will take place later in the evening, and the fiance will be arriving soon, but the revelry has already begun.

Jill holds the blade to his throat, and asks him to state his purpose, because she knows – she's always known. That's why Jack never spoke about her around him, because Jill's always known.

“I love him,” he says, because it's true.

“Is that so?”

He walks into the blade, letting it cut across the frog in his throat, the frog that dies for good at that moment. “Yeah, it is. I love him, and if he's gonna marry anyone, it's gonna be me – cuz he loves me too.”

And Jill the Ripper smiles.

* * *

It goes a little something like this – Jill puts away her short blade, and steps to the side. Yami storms inside the hall with his cane and his new cape, and screams at Jack that he loves him, and that he'll fight the locksmith for his hand in marriage, and Jack's already on his eighth beer, and can only stare with his mouth agape while En Ringard furiously coughs into his sleeve.

And Jack being Jack, a fight ensues, with Jack throwing the first punch, Yami stumbling backwards and missing the swing by just a hair's breadth, before toppling backwards with his cane because his ungodly height and muscle are still unused to working with a third leg.

But he never hits the ground, because Jack doesn't let him.

So when Jack the Ripper catches him, Yami kisses him, because it's the only thing that matters, because he loves him.

He loves him.

* * *

Jack wakes up from his hangover the following morning surrounded by his entire squad, Fuegoleon, half the Black bulls, Vangeance, Yami, and finally Jill.

“I love you too,” Jack grunts, before hoisting himself up into a sitting position. He turns to Jill, a frown on his ugly face, a face Yami has always loved. “How much do I owe you?”

“Three months worth,” Jill smiles pleasantly, and that's how everyone else learns that a) Jill never actually arranged the marriage between Jack and the locksmith, b) Jill bet Jack that Yami Sukehiro would tell him he loved him before Jack did, and finally, c) that Jill's the best gambler in her hometown, and now her brother owes her three months worth of his wages.

* * *

Jack's always been an idiot, so he hands over the money with dignity, and Jill bids them goodbye, until their next dinner, which is apparently two weeks from now, and has apparently been happening _forever_ , but because Yami is dense, the second stupidest person alive, and has never asked the right questions, he just didn't know.

He didn't know how much he loved the man holding his hand, until he thought he almost lost him. He tightens his grip on Jack's hand, and doesn't let go.

He'll never let go.

* * *

They kiss again in the Green Mantis pantry, because that's where Jack likes to eat his chocolate, in peace, and under a dinky light.

* * *

They make love for the first time underneath a blanket of stars, Jack's long arms snaked around Yami's waist in a protective hold as he moves earnestly inside of Yami, loving Yami in every possible way that he can, while Yami hides his face in the crook of his beloved's neck and recites his name as if it's a hymn, as if their love is God itself.

* * *

They marry months later, in Jack's hometown.

* * *

“Don't you just love being in love?” Gimodelo asks with a cheerful smile.

Yami gives him a lazy smile in response, and drinks his beer while waiting for his man to return home.

* * *


End file.
